The Back-to-School Blues meet The Green Mountain High

Ahhhhhhh!!!! I'm not ready! I haven't even spent a combined hour on preparation!  I can't remember what a dangling modifier is! I haven't rehearsed my, " I hope your summer was fantastic because this will be the most important academic year of your high school career," speech! I am a complete and utter failure.  In case you were wondering what it is I actually have been doing the last few weeks, I'll tell you.  

Rich and I spent the last 5 days in Stowe, Vermont and it took all of my strength and the promise of purchasing as many growlers of Vermont brewed beer that we could fit in our Scion for the trip home to get him to come back to the tri-state area.  Truth be told, I needed a little convincing myself.  We stayed right smack-dab in the middle of the majestic Green Mountains at the prestigious Stowehof Inn, waking literally every day to a misty, morning view from our balcony.  We visited as many breweries as I could physically stand, rubbed dirty elbows with the locals, saw a little local music and felt utterly at home in our birkenstocks and appreciation of the sweet, mountain air.  I lost count approximately how many times my husband mentioned how much we belonged there and if it weren't for the six month winter season, I would be inclined to agree.   Regretfully, yesterday we made the long trip home, our little car filled to the brim with beer bottles, Vermont cheese wedges from the creamery and maple syrup.  It just might have been the best vacation we've taken yet.  Really. Pictures to come as soon as I dig out my camera from underneath all of the pine needles.

Currently, I'm preparing to meet our realtor for our, oh, I don't know, fourth time we'll bid on a house this summer.  On our vacation we were reminded of how much we relish the opportunity to take off for a bit, see something new.  Our desires for things and what we'd love to see happen in the near future.  Copenhagen, Bel Horizonte, Brazil and Paris were all on the tip of our tongues.  Putting a good deal of work into this album that is slowly but surely taking shape- ahhh exciting!- reaching out to our community, helping out with the cool kids in our church's youth group and the possibility lingering still of either one or both of us returning to school for the spring semester.  All of these things together(including the hovering thought of a little Shannon in the possible near future) lead us to deciding upon the purchase of a house that would both fall well below our budget and afford us the space needed to open up to our friends and family.  We believe we finally found it and are taking the leap (once again) and placing a bid.  From previous experience, we know that God'll squash it if it's not a good idea and we're cool with that.  But, for now, we're so excited that we were saved from buying the house on Montclair so that we were able to evaluate what we needed and wanted for the next few years to come.

See? I have been entirely too busy to even consider constructing parts of speech worksheets.  I believe, in my heart of hearts, my students will thank me for that.